


not evil nor unreasonable

by hypothetical_otters



Category: The Monster Hunters (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 16:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16706065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypothetical_otters/pseuds/hypothetical_otters
Summary: or a vampire and a werewolf don't kill each other but live together happily and it's not actually established whether or not they're a couple.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is an ongoing series of non-linear not-drabbles that may or may not be updated on no schedule whatsoever.
> 
> spoilers, probably. I have listened to all episodes up to series 3 episode 2 but I have no idea what episode definitely human are up to on their re-release and i have absolutely no intention of finding out, or listening to these new versions.

In autumn he finds the other that he’s been chasing around London for months. He seems human, and Roy doesn’t know if that’s an insult or not. For him, it’s a good thing, telling the vampire that might just get him killed. The vampire is working at a university in London. A professor of some standing, who’s been lecturing for years and yet no one has questioned how he’s kept this up. Roy’s watches the vampire before making his move. Before Roy can stake the vampire, he introduces himself as Professor Lorrimer Chesterfield, lecturer in occult studies, and monster hunter.  
It’s easier to gain Lorrimer Chesterfields trust than Roy was expecting. Almost as if he hasn’t realised that Roy is a monster hunter, and a werewolf. By all accounts they should be at each other’s throats, should have been from the moment they saw each other. But Chesterfield is an academic, and somehow Roy is answering all sorts of questions about how things have changed over his lifetime. Roy is ancient compared to Chesterfield, and his inability to answer all these questions about the accuracy of historical record makes him feel older. He wants to finish this job, to stake this vampire, but somehow over the course of an evening the vampire is Lorrimer and Roy can’t bring himself to actually stake him. 

Lorrimer Chesterfield works at a print shop and is turned when a robbery goes wrong. He gets stabbed, and left for dead. A woman he doesn’t know is the last thing he sees before his vision goes black. She wasn’t involved in the robbery, she’s a passing stranger who took an interest in a dying man. Ginny turns him, and is there when he wakes up. She tells him that the world is stranger than he knows, and that he’s now a vampire. She explains the basics, teaches him how to drink from someone without killing them or turning them, and tells him that if he lives long enough he will be able to go out into the sun with only a mild sun-burn as penance, but he’s too young for the sun not to hurt him. She vanishes after that, and no matter how hard Lorrimer looks for her he never finds her. 

Roy Steel, the eldest of Reg Steel’s children is an abomination. He transforms into a wolf the first full moon after he hits puberty, and Reg discovers a connection between his wife and the wolves in the mountains. Roy is unceremonially kicked out of Reg’s house. Their other children don’t display wolfish characteristics, and stay with their father until their mother dies, and he refuses to have anything to do with her monstrous offspring. When Roy hears that his mother is dead he mourns for her, and wonders if Reg Steel finally snapped. When he hears that Reg Steel is dead, he is glad and does not mourn the passing of that monster. He worries about his siblings, until this worry clouds his judgement and he stays in one place for too long and nearly gets killed. Roy doesn’t think about his siblings or his mother for very long. 

Lorrimer knew the London of his youth, but that’s mostly gone now. When he can’t recognise the city he moves on. He goes to Europe. Starts with France before moving east and then south. After two hundred years he goes back to the city of his childhood, and nothing is the same as when he left. The city has grown again, become larger and brighter than before. He finds anonymity within the city, and he likes it. He finds anonymous people who are willing to be his victims. He finds a job, unlike what he did before but then there wasn’t much call for museums or libraries. In short, he thrives in this new city. 

Roy travels south again, but only as far as a new border between what is now Scotland and England. He stays in Edinburgh, picking up a new accent and tries to fit in to this new world that he doesn’t recognise. It’s easier than expected. After some years he goes to Yorkshire, where his new Edinburgh accent leaves him, in exchange for Yorkshire. He moves on, goes to London recognising the city as a whole, but recognising none of the details. He finds the parts of the city that people try to avoid and revels in the shadows there. He’s found monsters like him, and he loves it. He meets a vampire called Ginny who tells him she loves him. And they’re happy. Or at least happy enough, for a while. She takes off in the middle of the night, leaving him a note telling him not to look for her. So Roy doesn’t. So Roy drinks. Gets into fights. Doesn’t die though, he’s older and cleverer than the people he’s fighting. So much older he feels ancient and powerful. He finds that he’s good at fighting them, and he enjoys it.  
He knows this city so it’s easy to find the creatures that make it unsafe. The creatures who are a danger to the unaware humans who live in London. He dispatches those creatures quickly and without anyone knowing he’s the one doing this. He thinks everything is fine, until he gets the scent of an unknown vampire. Someone new in the city. They don’t know he’s following them, but they’re remarkably good at staying off his radar. He follows them to a university near Greenwich and poses as a student. The vampire is teaching history and it’s clear he disagrees with a lot of what he’s saying. Roy shares his disagreement but wonders why the vampire doesn’t just change the lectures to reflect what actually happened. He doesn’t get the chance to speak to the vampire once the class has finished, so he goes back again and again. 

Lorrimer knows there’s a werewolf in his class. Strange, because they’re halfway through the year, and no one has tried to join his class. They’re here for him, so he avoids them when he can. He thinks that if he can avoid the werewolf they’ll give up and leave him for easier prey. But they don’t, the werewolf is still in his classes when the school year ends, so he lets the werewolf talk to him after the final class. 

They become friends. Distant friends that is, but friends nonetheless. Roy doesn’t kill Lorrimer, and Lorrimer never had any intention of killing Roy. Lorrimer stays teaching at his university, and then at other universities. Thanks to Roy, he meets other supernatural academics and they set up a school for people who might otherwise struggle in a human educational establishment. Lorrimer’s students wonder why a human is teaching them about the occult, because he doesn’t need to, or want to, tell them he’s a vampire. He’s got quite good at making himself seem human. He’s good enough to fool even the best hunters. He and Roy have turned it into a game to see who notices there’s another supernatural creature in the room first. Roy wins, but Lorrimer’s got better at fooling Roy. 

Sir Maxwell is human. A very aware human, but one hundred per cent human. He knows this pub he’s in isn’t meant for humans. In the corner there’s a zombie drinking scotch straight from the bottle, and a vampire trying to make a deal with the barman to get blood. It’s a supernatural pub, and a pretty down market pub at that. There’s someone slumped over the bar, but he doesn’t know what they are. He just happens to be the best monster hunter there is, so he might just be human. Sir Max jostles Roy Steel’s shoulder, and the man tells him “I’m drunk, Lorrie, leave me alone.” Roy falls back to the table with a loud crack. Max suspects that the noise was the table, and not Roy’s head. He leaves the pub, as the zombie and the vampire are staring at him menacingly. 

When Lorrimer isn’t concentrating he speaks old English. His notes for papers and classes are unintelligible, not because he suspects anyone of reading his plans to take his ideas but because that’s what he knows. Roy understands him when he wants to, or the language at least, Roy has never claimed to be an academic. 

There are warnings and runes scrawled into the door and the doorframe. Max feels distinctly unsafe, but he’s got Suki with him so he puts on a brave face. He’s looking for Professor Lorrimer Chesterfield, and someone (he can’t remember who) pointed him to Highgate. Before he can knock on the door it opens and Roy Steel falls out of the flat. He shouts something about how rude it is to open a door when someone’s leaning on it, even if there are people waiting to come in. Sir Max and Suki enter the flat, and find Chesterfield gesturing at the door. It swings shut behind Roy. Sir Max outlines the aims of the monster hunters, and Roy and Lorrimer have a silent conversation. Sir Max and Suki leave without new monster hunters. 

Roy continues to fight those who threaten his existence, and runs into Sir Max many more times. He says no every time, what could Roy possibly want or need from this posh boy? He’s fine by himself. He’s doing good with Lorrimer, even while trying to protect him from the worst that creatures like them can do. Roy meets Sir Max’s new monster hunter, a big shot big game hunter called Greg, and dislikes him almost immediately. He has rather forgotten that he used to know Greg, and this irks Greg more than anything else. Roy sees the damage that Greg is doing to both the supernatural London and the human London, and wonders whether he should say yes to Sir Max’s job offer. 

Ginny stands at the end of the corridor, waiting and watching. Despite everything, she thinks she might miss Roy Steel. Ginny hasn’t really missed anyone since she came down from the mountains to live in the light. She’s got children, of a sort, scattered all over the planet, and she doesn’t miss them. She doesn’t regret turning them, or leaving them. She never does well staying in one place, and he wants to retreat back to the highlands where he came from and hide for several decades. She’ll leave him and she might miss him. In the years to come she might remember a story that starts in hello and ends with her watching him sleep before disappearing from his life. 

Ginny sees him again when she discovers ghosts in her house. She could deal with them, but she wants to see him. She won’t admit that though, that’s admitting a weakness and she’d never do that. She wants to see him, to see if Greg did manage to do anything to him. She’s pleasantly surprised to see Lorrimer again, even if he’s pretending not to know her. He’s loyal, and that’s good, but he’s not loyal to her. Then again, she never gave him a reason to be loyal. They seem happy. Ginny doesn’t regret leaving Roy or Lorrimer, especially now they’ve found each other.


	2. Chapter 2

Sir Maxwell House rarely comes to Highgate to convince Roy to work with him. He has for some reason decided that Roy is a ladies man, and sends his assistant instead. Roy Steel might have that impression about him, always chatting to women in pubs and bars, but he always goes home alone (a choice, Lorrimer is at home). He finds Suki fascinating, she’s better than competent and if he was a slightly better person he would introduce her to Lorrimer. Lorrimer teaches during the day and Suki only talks to him in daylight. She has more sense than her employer. He shows up at a pub Roy doesn’t go to very often, just after dusk, again to convince him to become a Monster Hunter. 

When Ginny leaves, she watches Roy for a moment before dropping a note next to him. A Letter explaining that she’s gone, and that it is possible she doesn’t want to but that she has to. She doesn’t say they will see each other again. She is fascinated by this human who has kept her attention for so long, without her turning him, but won’t let him know what she is. 

(Roy has known since he met her that she is a vampire. He doesn’t buy into that idea that werewolves and vampires hate each other on sight, and he might have been happy with her. He’s disappointed that she left. Disappointed that she didn’t say goodbye in person. Uncertain of what to do now, he takes the letter with him.) 

Ginny is waiting in Chesterfield’s flat. She’s heard he’s very good at getting rid of ghosts, and her house is regrettably haunted. She doesn’t want to revisit one of the vampires she turned, but in this situation she can’t remove the ghost by herself. Roy Steel lets himself into Lorrimer’s flat, and Ginny tells him he should be dead. She very nearly gets staked.

The university Lorrimer teaches at is entirely normal. He teaches Egyptology. Other people teach 20th century history. Some teach English literature. The arts department is unparalleled. The staff are all impeccable. It is one hundred per cent above board, and might even be found on UCAS. It is rare though, for an admission to come from a UCAS application. Most often people applying through conventional means are unable to find the correct forms or the right place to send them. These applicants find themselves looking at Goldsmiths or Westminster, and forget all about London University. A change in perception would indicate that Lorrimer Chesterfield teaches Occult Studies. that Literature students have reading to do in ancient languages, that might curse the reader or cure them depending on how good the translator is. 

Roy doesn’t feel like an outsider. He’s much too self-assured to feel like that. He’s meeting Lorrimer after his last lecture, because they have a job to do. He in no way feels threatened by the academics, or by the children learning from those academics. He’s been alive far longer than most of them will ever be, and has learned more practical knowledge than they will ever know. He doesn’t know exactly how the methods he uses to kill work, he just knows they work and that is more important than knowing why. He finds Lorrimer’s classroom and feels somewhat better.

The philosophy department, or at least those not currently teaching, are in a small cupboard that passes for a staffroom talking about that occult studies teacher. He must have been at the university since it opened, Steph says. He only looks about thirty, possibly not even that, he can’t have been here that long, Brian points out sort of reasonably. Only sort of reasonably as he uses magic to look older, to appear like his idealised version of a philosophy lecturer. The discussion about Lorrimer Chesterfield, if that’s even his real name, is one that most departments at the university have had, over and over again. He appears to be a human, and that’s strange enough in London’s only supernatural university. Speculation recently has turned to his friend, who looks lost and spooked by the university each time he’s here, which happens about once a month. 

Octavia first meets Roy Steel far in the future, and will meet him for the last time at some point before time was measured in any specific way. She’s only ever spoken to him in cryptic but vital conversations that last a few seconds before she is pulled away by the ebb and flow of time. She goes where ever time takes her, and sometimes sees Roy. She’s not told him that she’s related to Lorrimer, possibly closely or distantly – time being what it is for her means she will never know or remember exactly who he is. Roy wonders if anywhere in the university library there is anything that could help Octavia stay in one place, but he doesn’t think she’d want that. 

Sir Max thinks Lorrimer is an Egyptology professor, that is after all what he’s been told. Sir Max is a remarkably perceptive human, but he is also a bit of an idiot. He doesn’t look further than he needs to, and doesn’t seem to have discovered that Lorrimer is in fact an occult studies lecturer and a vampire, or that Roy is a werewolf and has been around far longer than most of the exhibits in the British museum. Sir Max doesn’t need to know any of this, as long as Roy and Lorrimer aren’t compromised Sir Max will never find out. 

It might not be a traditional subject, but someone has to teach witchcraft to people who want to learn. Octavia has been a witch for years, even ignoring the whole out of time thing. She’s always certain to be in the university for her lectures and for her office hours just in case a student needs her, but she has met some of her students outside of the university because it’s been convenient for both of them. She sees Lorrimer around the university, because their departments are similar and often students take modules taught by both of them. She doesn’t know that Lorrimer is Roy’s Lorrimer, until Roy skulks around the campus trying to find him.


End file.
